Philosophy 100 Essential Thinkers by Stokes Philip

Author:Stokes, Philip [Stokes, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
Published: 2012-08-08T05:00:00+00:00

Thomas Paine

1737–1809

The proceeds of land and property tax should be invested in a welfare system

English-born political philosopher, Paine not only invented the term ‘United States of America’, he inspired the revolutions both there and in France. He was forced to flee England when he tried to do the same thing there. Awareness of his importance in the formation of the American constitution and the American ‘way of life’ is pivotal to understanding the entity that is modern day America.

Having emigrated to the New World in the early 1770’s, Paine became editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine and published one of the first essays calling for the abolition of slavery. With the beginning of the American Revolution, Paine made himself famous by publishing his book Common Sense. In it, he argues against the notion of a ruling class, insisting that government and society must be kept distinct. Independence for the American Colonies, Paine argued, was both morally and practically justified. He continued to write and publish pamphlets throughout the War of Independence in support of the revolution.

After the success of the war for American independence, Paine went first to France and then to England. In response to Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, Paine wrote and published The Rights of Man, his seminal treatise on democracy and republicanism. According to Paine, all men are born with equal rights. The necessity of social living, however, can bring about situations where we impinge on the rights of others. Moreover, we may not always have the means to protect our rights from others who do not respect them. Consequently, it is necessary to develop the state and a constitution in which individual rights are encoded as civil rights, enforced by the state on behalf of the individual.

The only morally acceptable constitution is that of the democratic republic in which citizens are granted the further right to vote in order to choose their own leaders. It is just this right, to choose one’s leaders, that the hereditary monarchies of France and England deny to their people, providing justification enough to abandon them as immoral constitutions.

The response of the British government was to charge Paine with treason, causing him to flee back to France. With Paine gone, the government quashed the British revolution before it had chance to gain momentum. In France, Paine was at first welcomed and given a seat in the National Convention. However he was later imprisoned and only just escaped execution.

Paine developed his ideas on civil rights and justice in his Agrarian Justice, where he argues that a state is predicated on the basis that it makes its citizens better off than they otherwise would be without its constitution. But, he finds, many of the poorest people in the civilized societies of Europe are in a worse state than the so-called ‘uncivilized’ native American Indians. The inequity has much to do with land and property ownership, a privilege Paine suggests should be taxed since the generation of wealth that makes it possible requires the support of society.

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